i love my iphone 12 mini for this very reason. It's still small enough to fit 'mostly' comfortably in my pocket, even a shirt pocket. I hate how large most phones are now and everyone i know that sees my phone makes fun of me/it. I just don't get why (or how) one uses such huge devices as their phones now.
Phones are more of a content consumption devices than a communication device for probably the majority of users; a bigger screen directly makes it a better content consumption device, even if you sometimes need to adjust your grip to tap something on the top edge of the screen.
Depends a lot on what she does with it, doesn't it?
My friend with a 12 mini complains it's still too large and basically always needs to have a purse with her since it won't fit any of her pockets. Never complained about battery life and doesn't cart any external power source, either.
Different friend had one of those cases with integrated battery packs around her iphone pros. She spends her days on the phone, though...
As another data point, my iphone 7 had basically enough battery to last me through the day until last year. I changed it because the battery was bulging, and at the end the screen was hanging on to the body by next to nothing.
My daily driver is a Unihertz Jelly Star: full android 13, but on a 3" screen and it fits in a watch pocket. Probably not for everyone, but I love it and maybe you would too...
My first Afghanistan deployment, I left with an old nokia and came back to find the world had invented smart phones. My second deployment, I left with a new iPhone 4, and came back to find people walking around with tablets.
I miss my iPhone 5, that thing was so tiny. It was amazing.
>and came back to find people walking around with tablets
Well, if the majority of people voluntarily chose with their hard earned cash to walk around with tablets instead of small phones, then it's just the free market at work, and there's not much you as an individual can do about it.
Apple in the days of Steve Jobs was notoriously opinionated about small phones being the best and preaching on how they're much better for ergonomics, as a response to the assault of Androids with much larger OLED screens, but even they shamelessly caved in and adopted the larger screens against their own previous rhetoric, since you can only piss against the wind for so long before you get wet(as in loose sales and market share to competitors who offer what customers really want, larger screens).
> If people voluntarily chose with their hard earned cash to walk around with tablets instead of small phones, it's just the free market at work.
Just surprising. From my perspective, I missed all the marketing. I remember getting off the plane and someone pulling out their massive android and me being like WTAF is that?
Maybe I like smaller phones since I missed out on being told I wanted bigger phones on TV. By the time I got back, nobody was trying to convince me I wanted bigger, just cameras and stuff.
None of the major phone makers will go back to making 2009 era sized phones just to cater to you and the 3 other people who like them, because the market has spoken with their wallets unilaterally in favor of large phones, hence why most manufacturers have dropped small phones altogether, whether you like it or not.
Since nothing is ever perfect at satisfying everyone, choices in life are always about compromise, and foldables are currently the best compromise for those who value small sizes without sacrificing usability of larger screens.
Another one of the 3 other people here who like small phones.
This exact same economic model of an oligopoly only offering larger and more expensive models has been done before. I'm pretty sure the big 3 automakers were also saying that 'the market has spoken', right up until the Japanese ate their lunch.
Where? The phone makers have been also shipping smaller phones until they had to scale back production and cut them out completely because nobody was buying them. You and two other people buying them is not a market share worth catering for and keeping production lines busy for.
You have to accept you're a minority here and not a profitable one.
Cheap phones are also large now BTW, so nothing to do with pushing expletive models. Even 100 Euro phones are still over 6 inches. Because that's what the majority wants, large phones, and voted with their wallets.
The iPhone mini sold more units than some Android models, and for example magnitudes more than the Fairphone. Apple decided it’s beneath them, but that doesn’t mean it’s not economically viable.
I disagree that foldables are the best compromise, because they are thicker folded than a regular smartphone, which is inconvenient for pocketing, and what’s worse they are heavier, while the screen is also not smaller than a regular phone unfolded.
For example, the Samsung Flip5, one of the smallest foldables, is 15.1 mm thick folded and weighs 187 g, while the regular iPhone 15 is only 7.8 mm thick and weighs only 171 g, while also being marginally narrower (0.3 mm). For those who find the regular iPhone to large, too wide, and too heavy, the Flip5 is not an improvement.
Just for comparison, the iPhone SE 2016 was a full 13 mm (or 18%) narrower, less than half as thick as the Flip5 folded, while only being 45% taller (or 25% shorter than the Flip5 unfolded), and weighed only 113 g.
Small phones are also about “thumbability”, that is, the ability to be used one-handed with the thumb being able to comfortably reach across the screen. The foldables are of zero help there.
>Small phones are also about “thumbability”, that is, the ability to be used one-handed with the thumb being able to comfortably reach across the screen. The foldables are of zero help there.
Foldables have the external screen for "thumbability". And the large internal display for contant consumption and multitasking. Therefore best compromise.
Nothing is ever bulletproof, and if you search enough you'll hear horror stories about non foldable phones too, but everyone I know with recent foldables hasn't had durability issues.
I was at a carrier shop activating a new line and someone was returning their foldable - it just died on her. Rep was on hold for an hour trying to get approval to return.
Really seems too bleeding edge for general public.
No they're the opposite. I want a small screen that I can reach the entire thing with one thumb. Not a screen that folds out to be twice as big as I want
Yes, small is the best. Currently I use a Palm Phone which is the perfect size. But of course discontinued. The market needs a lot more choices in that size.
